Palladium Books® Weekly Update – July 26, 2012

By Kevin Siembieda

UPDATE: Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO Crowdfunding nears goal – FOUR Days Left

$15,170 – that was the current status of the Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO crowdfunding as of this morning. Our goal is $18,000 and there are only four days left. The last two Megaverse® Insider crowdfunding offers saw thunderous big sales the last weekend, and exceeded our goals. We don’t know if that will be the case or not, but we should certainly reach our goal even with moderate sales.

LAST FOUR DAYS to order your exclusive Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO crowdfunding items!

Yep, this weekend is your last chance to order your exclusive Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO crowdfunding items. The Northern Gun™ TWO Foil, Collector’s Edition Hardcover, Color Cover Hardcover Edition, PDF, or getting your name listed and other items and services exclusive to the Northern Gun™ TWO crowdfunding offer are only available till Monday, July 30, 2012. This is your lastchance to place your order for a crowdfunding offer this year. And this book is going to be epic. NOTE: This current Megaverse Insider crowdfunding offer is the last one planned for this year, and ends Monday – July 30, 2012.

The value of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding gives Palladium Books a boost and the ability to release books with superior production value, great artwork and helps us develop other titles, do more reprints, advertising, reduce our debt load, and engage in other efforts to make Palladium strong. In fact, two out of print titles came in over the last six days and I continue to pay down debt, much of it going to Palladium’s talented writers and artists.

Your participation is welcomed and appreciated, but please, do NOT overextend yourselves. Purchase only the Megaverse Insider items you want and what you can afford. NOTE: The special items like art prints that the higher levels of participation receive are NOT the same as those in either previous Megaverse® Insider offer; they are completely new and different. How else would they be special? Each new offer will always be something new and special, unless stated otherwise.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #59 – Available now

The Rifter® #59 shipped last Friday as scheduled. It is an outstanding issue with source material for the Xiticix™ Hivelands (new monsters and danger – the perfect companion for the Xiticix Invasion World Book), Splicers® (Gorehounds and Packmasters), Techno-Wizardru™ (items galore!), Palladium Fantasy RPG® (an adventure), Kezel abilities part two, and more. If you don’t usually get The Rifter®, you will wantThe Rifter® #59. Seriously.

Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion™ – Back in print – Available now.

Rifts® Xiticix Invasion™ arrived on schedule last Friday as well. It is a fan favorite with everything you need to know about the Xiticix and the Hivelands, as well as details about Psi-Stalker tribes and Coalition operations in the area. The full description is toward the end of this Update.

Rifts® World Book 31: Triax™ Two – Back in print – Available now

This popular sourcebook updates and details the war between the people of the New German Republic and the Gargoyle Empire, and humanity is winning! In addition to new information about the NGR and the war, there are nearly 30 new Triax weapons and body armor, new giant robots and power armor, aircraft and a wide range of material suitable for campaigns abroad and elsewhere in the world. Don’t forget, the Black Market smuggles some Triax combat gear into North America. The full description is found toward the end of this Update.

Rifts® Dice Bag – Back in print – Available now

Another popular item is back in stock – the Rifts® Dice Bag. It is a sturdy, drawstring bag made of imitation black velvet emblazoned with the Rifts® logo in gold. 7x9 inches in size.

UPDATE: Rifts® Black Market – 192 pages

This book is truly epic. It is absolutely jam-packed with a vast range of new source material. There is page after page of dynamic new characters, O.C.C.s, weapons, armors, vehicles, random generation tables and information about the Black Market. As I said in the last Weekly Update, I think this sourcebook is destined to become a “must-have” title. And it is late. Sorry.

Try as we all did, we just couldn’t get it to the printer this week. All of my artists – Mike Mumah, Brian Manning, Allen Manning, Amy L. Ashbaugh, Ben Rodriguez and Nick Bradshaw hit their deadlines and turned in gorgeous artwork. Chuck Walton is turning in the last of some additional illustrations this evening. The final editing and writing for the book is almost finished. We expect to wrap it up over the weekend. It WILL ship before Gen Con.

I hate to disappoint people, but I guess I’d rather disappoint you with delays than with an inferior product. Rifts® Black Market is nothing short of outstanding, thanks to the extra efforts of Carmen Bellaire, Julius Rosenstein, and the Palladium artists. We just kept adding material and going back into parts that were completely done and waiting for layout to make changes and additions so that Rifts® Black Market is as good as it can be. I hope you understand.

UPDATE: Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook

I still plan to dive into Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook the second I finish Rifts® Black Market, but it probably will not go to the printer till after Gen Con, making it a September release. This is another book that is going to surprise and please Rifts® fans, and may get expanded in size.

UPDATE: Rifts® Northern Gun™ One and Two

Yes, that means Rifts® Northern Gun™ One and Two may also be further delayed. But they too are going to blow your mind. Chuck Walton’s art is as good or better than Lemuria, and the ideas, the power armor, the robots and source material . . . wow.

UPDATE: Available on DriveThruRPG.com

Activity at this site has been strong. This is your place to get PDFs of older product and sneak previews of upcoming books. As soon as we can do one, we’ll be making a FREE Sneak Preview of Rifts® Black Market available. That will be next week. Many back issues of The Rifter® are available on DriveThruRPG.com (issues #1-52), as are more than 90 out of print titles such as Rifts®, BTS™ and Palladium Fantasy® first edition rule books and sourcebooks. A sneak preview of Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook and should also be coming soon. We plan to add a few more items in the coming months that should please Palladium gamers. We are also planning to move forward with PDF only editions of The Rifter® #0.1 and The Rifter® #0.2 – both are big, juicy digital editions of new, fan created material for the Palladium Megaverse® of games.

Don’t forget, DriveThruRPG.com also offers the Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy® Game Master Kits (both written by Carl Gleba and complete with maps, combat matrix, character sheets, spell list, and 20 pre-rolled characters created by Julius Rosenstein; $5 each). Of course, there are FREE Sneak Previews of Endless Dead™, Rifts® Lemuria, Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™, and Thundercloud Galaxy™, as well as 90+ out of print titles, including back issues of The Rifter®, and first edition rule books for Rifts®, Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Heroes Unlimited™, The Mechanoid Invasion® Trilogy, and lots of other good things. ALL available as PDF downloads at reasonable prices. And there is MORE to come.

UPDATE: Kevin’s Online Toy & Collectibles Store – selling like crazy

We thought things would slow down, but all of a sudden we’ve been selling Palladium collectibles, along with Spider-Man, Batman, Star Wars and other action figures, like crazy.

Palladium Collectibles. There are only 4-5 copies of the Rifts® Machinations of Doom Gold collector’s edition left to ever be put up for sale in the store and the latest one blew out in a couple of days. I may put up another and hang on to the rest for a while. Likewise, we are quickly running out of Rifts® RPG Silver Hardcovers, BTS Gold,Rifts® Ultimate Gold, and other items. We have less than a dozen of most, which is why we continue to dole them out one at a time. I have been putting up copies of the two Rifts® Lemuria hardcovers as well. This way people who missed the crowdfunding have an opportunity to get one. But these are super-limited and the books in the store are part of the around 200 copies printed for each of these books. If you recall, Palladium prints 48 extra of the color cover edition and 24 of the foil collector’s edition. Staff and friends got a few, and what’s left we’ve been putting up in the store and other special offers. Once they are sold out, they are GONE! Other collectibles include first printings of books, signed books, proofreader copies of books, original artwork, and other collectible odds and ends.

There are also a large number of collectible toys and action figures in my online store. All are from my personal collection. More toys and collectibles are added on a weekly basis.

Good News

I wrote this for The Rifter® #59, but it bears repeating for all to see; plus I’ve updated some of the material.

I think we’re all afraid to say it, because saying it out loud might jinx it. And we don’t want that to happen. So let me couch it in the form of a question:

Could 2012 really be Palladium Books’ comeback year? Is this the year Palladium Books makes major strides in getting strong and growing the company?

We’re not there yet, but we sure seem to be getting there quickly. And there are all kinds of things happening that would suggest the answer could be, yes.

We are publishing more new releases. Epic, fun and dynamic releases. Yes, we’re behind schedule as usual it seems, but books that have come out, and the ones we are working on releasing in the months to come, are outstanding. Or at least, that’s how we feel about them.

And there are a lot more where those have come from. We have ideas and plans for dozens of great books for Rifts®, Robotech®, Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Splicers®, Nightbane®, Beyond the Supernatural™, and all our game lines.

● Writer Josh Sinsapaugh is back writing for Palladium after a long hiatus. He has a nice Rifts® Xiticix™ article in The Rifter® #59, he just turned in a revamped Rifts® Deep South manuscript, and is about to start on a new book project. Welcome back, Josh!

● Writer Carmen Bellaire is back writing for Palladium. Carmen took the last 2-3 years off to work on some personal projects, but now he’s back writing for Palladium. He’s just turned in a wealth of weapons and equipment for Rifts® Black Market and Rifts® Northern Gun™, and I just gave him the greenlight to write FOUR new Rifts® books! Four.

● Writer Matthew Clements is coming back in the fall to work on a couple of new Rifts® books. He has taken the last six months off to pursue a couple of film projects. Yeah, Matt’s been writing screenplays all spring and summer.

● Writer Carl Gleba is reinvigorated. He has just finished a secret book project and is providing additional gear and ideas for the two Northern Gun books. He then plans to get to work on a few new book ideas.

● Writer Greg Diaczyk is finishing up work on two Rifts® books and has gotten approval to start work on a Heroes Unlimited™ sourcebook.

● Writer Irvin Jackson and Robotech®. He is working on ideas for two new Robotech® sourcebooks, plus his Robotech® Genesis Pits Sourcebook is sitting here waiting to go into final production and be sent to the printer.

● Robotech® Game Pieces of Mecha and spaceships. Just a few weeks ago, Palladium Books has extended its current licensing agreement with Harmony Gold and has secured the rights to produce pewter game pieces of Robotech® mecha and ships. We are looking for capable sculptors and a manufacturer. We’d like to release of 1/285 scale mecha by spring 2013!

● Writer Brandon Aten is wrapping up work on Rifts® Sovietski and has plans for several Splicers® Sourcebooks. Yes, we plan to support Splicers® in a big way in 2013.

● Palladium’s freelance artists are more dedicated and committed than ever. Each and every one of them is taking their craft to the next level. Chuck Walton, Amy L. Ashbaugh, Nick Bradshaw, Mike Mumah, Mark Dudley, Kent Burles, Allen Manning, Brian Manning, Ben Rodriguez, Mike Leonard, and other artists are all unleashing a new intensity of creative energy. You’ll know what I’m talking about when the next batch of books hit store shelves.

● Artist John Zeleznik is knocking out one impressive cover after another for us. I need to assign him the next one.

● Artist Mark Evans is back and working on the two Beyond the Supernatural™ covers – Tome Grotesque™ and Beyond Arcanum™, plus a Heroes Unlimited™ cover. He took time off to deal with some personal matters and to work on a big tarot card project. Welcome back, Mark!

● And could it be? There have been rumblings from fan favorite artists Wayne Breaux Jr. and Mike Wilson about possibly doing some new work for Palladium Books next year.

● Crowdsource funding via Palladium’s Megaverse® Insider offers has been a huge success too, putting unique, often collectible products and services into the hands of gamers, and helping Palladium to fund the release of select new titles, reprint out of stock titles, pay down debt and increase our advertising. Wow, talk about a win, win scenario for everyone involved. Beautiful.

● A few licensing deals may be happening for Palladium. Our agents at Surge Licensing was approached by two or three companies inquiring about some exciting licensing possibilities with Palladium intellectual properties (I.P.s). It is too soon to reveal what they are, but if they pan out . . . I think gamers will be pleased. On top of that, Palladium has been contacted directly by another two or three start-up companies with ideas for new products and markets. One of which is located in Spain! Again, it is too soon to speculate about them, but they are all promising and we are moving forward to see if they can be made into reality.

● Gen Con® Indy is in a few weeks. We hope to make some additional connections and contacts there, as well as see a lot of Palladium gamers dropping by to say hello, meet some of the artists and writers, pick up product, new and old, and get autographs.

This year’s line-up of Palladium creators at the booth includes:

Kevin Siembieda (Publisher, writer, game designer)

Wayne Smith (The Rifter®, editor and more)

Chuck Walton (artist)

Matthew Clements (writer)

Brandon Aten (writer)

Mark Oberle (writer)

And maybe a few other Palladium creators.

● Online sales have been up and down, but overall good, and distributor sales have been slowly increasing. Recent releases, like Rifts® Lemuria and Endless Dead™, were both well received. What am I saying? People went wild over Rifts® Lemuria and loved Endless Dead™.

I know I’ve been saying for a while there is an energy and excitement in the air at Palladium, but it is real and it is exciting. Very, very exciting. Ideas on a vast number of things have been flying around for months. There are a half-dozen secret projects being developed (the possibility of doing Robotech® mecha figures was one of them) and it seems like new ideas and opportunities are cropping up on a regular basis.

If none of this gets your heart pumping, I don’t know what will. Keep the faith and game on!

– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher

THIS IS YOUR LAST WEEKEND to order Northern Gun™ TWO Megaverse® Insider crowdfunding products – offer ends July 30, 2012

The Megaverse® Insider crowdfunding offer for Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO enables you to purchase special, collectible and fun items and opportunities not available to the general public and help fund Palladium projects at the same time.

ENDS MONDAY – July 30, 2012. Order before you miss out

Such “crowdfunding” offers are a new way for companies to raise funds for major releases, like Northern Gun™ One and Two. Moneys made above and beyond our projected goals for each specific project are applied to paying off debt, increasing promotion and advertising, creating other new products and so on. This is the LAST crowdfunding offer for the year. The Rifts® Northern Gun™ TWO Megaverse® Insider offer is going on now and runs till July 30, 2012. The items offered are only available during this crowdfunding period. NOTE: All special items and prints (unless stated otherwise) are new and different from the previous Rifts® Lemuria and Northern Gun™ One Insider offers. Each new offer contains its own unique set of collectibles and keepsakes. Get ‘em while you can. Available NOW through MONDAY, July 30, 2012.

The Rifter® #59 includes:

Palladium Fantasy® – Olympic-style games, adventure and intrigue on the Island of Lopan, by Paul Herbert.

Splicers® – The Pack Mentality features the Packmaster and the genetically altered animals at his command. Written by Brandon Aten and Michael Orr.

All Settings: Rules for Explosives for any Palladium setting – a very helpful article by Thomas Morrison.

Various Settings: Techno-Wizardry Across the Megaverse® by Anthony Lovato.

Various Settings: The Kezel™ are weird, new superhumans for use in Rifts® Chaos Earth™, Rifts®, Phase World®, Heroes Unlimited™ and even Palladium Fantasy®. Part Two concludes the many super abilities. Written by Joseph Larsen.

Rifts® Black Market™ – A 192 page Rifts® Sourcebook

Rifts® Black Market™ is an epic, 192 page sourcebook that contains a wealth of information about the inner workings of the Black Market, the Five Factions, new Bandito Arms/Black Market weapons and gear, how to make any O.C.C. a Black Marketeer, special abilities of the Black Marketeer, criminal enterprises, Black Market loans, merc and crime jobs, and much more. This book has it all. AND best of all, a lot of it can be easily adapted to just about any world setting, not just Rifts Earth.

Rules to make any O.C.C. (and R.C.C.) a Black Marketeer.

Special abilities and benefits of the Black Marketeer.

Specialized O.C.C.s of the Black Market.

Criminal enterprises, jobs, and inner workings of the Black Market.

The Five Black Market Factions that wield the greatest power in North America: Bandito Arms, The Chicago Network, The Immaterial Hand, El Oculta, and Le Marche Noir.

Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook™

In final production right now. Unknown to most humans, deep within Mexico the vampires have established entire kingdoms. There they live like tyrants and gods, dominating an underclass of cattle people used as slaves and food stock. Learn more about the vampires, their rivals, allies and the humans who willingly serve their supernatural masters for a chance to join the undead. A must-have guide for those who wish to travel deeper into the Vampire Kingdoms or play as vampires and their human minions.

More human kingdoms within Mexico like the Tampico Military Protectorate and Durango, the Silver City.

Firefighting robots, hover firetrucks and more anti-vampire gear.

Magic based Vampire Hunters and human strongholds.

Techno-Wizard anti-vampire weapons and magical devices.

Profiles for Doc Reid and Reid’s Rangers, the world’s most famous Vampire Hunters.

Fort Reid, an entire city devoted to hunting the undead.

The Bloodwatch, a secret vampire intelligence agency that tracks down and exterminates Vampire Hunters.

The Yucatan Peninsula, a mysterious dimensional pocket overrun by strange demons known as Xibalbans.

The return of the Mayan god Camazotz, Lord of Bats and Darkness.

The werebeasts of Mexico and Central America; those who assist the vampires and those who fight against them.

Rifts® World Book 33: Northern Gun™ One – New

Northern Gun™ is the largest independent manufacturer of high-tech weapons, robots and vehicles in North America. Outside of the Coalition States, one could argue, no other kingdom is as powerful or influential, at least when it comes to technology and weapons. The manufacture and sale of Northern Gun weapons and vehicles has given virtually every kingdom, town, colony of settlers and adventurer group a chance to survive and prosper. Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, NG has been the premier outfitter of mercenaries, adventurers and upstart kingdoms for generations. Now, for the first time ever, learn Northern Gun’s history, goals and plans for the future. Of course, that means new weapons, robots, power armor, vehicles and gear.

In-depth look at Northern Gun: its business operations and its community.

Rifts® World Book 35: Megaverse® in Flames™

The Minion War spills across Rifts Earth, where demons and infernals hope to recruit allies and use the Rifts as gateways of destruction. Their influence shakes things up across the planet, especially at locations where demons and Deevils already have a strong presence. Demons, Deevils and supernatural beings run rampant and wreak havoc across the world.

Demon plagues and mystic blights.

Soulmancy and Blood Magic revealed.

Magical and demonic weapons and war machines.

Demonic armies, strongholds and places of evil.

Hell Pits and Rune Forges.

Many Demon Lords, their minions and plans.

Calgary, the Kingdom of Monsters; in detail.

Ciudad de Diablo, Harpies’ Island and other notable Hell holes on Earth.

Lord Doom, Pain and other demonic leaders.

Horune treachery, Dimension Stormers and other villains.

Notable demonic generals, mercenaries, people and places.

Battleground: Earth – as demons and infernals amass their legions.

Global chaos and the places most dramatically affected by the Demon Plagues.

PDF downloads from DriveThruRPG.com

This is a great resource for getting out of print Palladium titles and other select books. We’ve made 90 titles available as PDF digital downloads from DriveThruRPG.com. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include.

Recent Product Releases – available now

Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion™

– Back in print – Available now

Earth is home to thousands of alien species from beyond the Rifts. One of the strangest and most dangerous is the Xiticix. A danger nobody seemed to realize until the sprawling Hivelands began to encroach on the territories of other people. Armed with new breeds of aggressive warriors, new weapons and legions of insectoids willing to fight to the death, people are beginning to wonder if they are the next threat to humanity.

Rifts® World Book 31: Triax™ Two

– Back in print – Available now

The war between the people of the New German Republic and the Gargoyle Empire rages on, but only the heroes of the NGR seem to be getting the upper hand. See where things stand in the year 109 P.A. and get a closer look at the NGR Army, government, society and people. This World Book also presents the latest weapons, combat vehicles, power armor and robots of the NGR as well as commercial vehicles, robot helpers, and more.

27 new Triax weapons plus new body armor and additional gear.

10 new Triax giant robots including the Talon and Devastator II.

10 cars and commercial vehicles plus more than 50 special features.

9 new robot drones including robot assistants, pets and Spy ‘Bots.

6 new Triax power armor suits, including the Predator II, Ulti-Max II, War Eagle, Fat Boy, and a flying Glitter Boy.

Rifts® Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids®

– Back in Print – Available now

Archie 3 and Hagan Lonovich are two of the most beloved villains (anti-heroes?) in the Rifts Earth setting. This sourcebook highlights their strange relationship, plots and blunders. One of which is inadvertently unleashing The Mechanoids® into the world!

The Mechanoids have one driving goal: To destroy all humanoid life! This book has it all. Source material, the Mechanoids, new equipment, monsters, adventure and cryptic prophecies.

The prophecies of the Seven Dangers.

20+ Mechanoids and their robot legion.

Optional Mechanoids® Player Characters and character sheets.

Archie Three and Hagan: Heroes or villains?

The weapons and robot minions of Hagan Lonovich.

New creations from Archie Three and Hagan, plus more history and insight about the unlikely duo.

Cyber-Knights™: A Rifts® Coalition Wars® Sourcebook:

– Back in Print – Available now

The Coalition’s siege on Tolkeen has had a devastating impact on people across North America. None have been more affected than the Cyber-Knights. This sourcebook reveals not only the history and secrets of the Cyber-Knights, but the schism the war has created among the fabled warriors.

Dead Reign™ Sourcebook 3: Endless Dead™ – Available now

Endless Dead™ is a new 96 page sourcebook that will send your Dead Reign™ campaign in new directions or add depth (and zombies). What are you waiting for? Order your copy today. And if you haven’t taken a look at the Dead Reign™ RPG yet, but love zombies, you need to give this dynamic game a try.

Classic Rifts® Miniatures – Back in stock

The following favorite Rifts® miniatures are back in stock. Some, like the Glitter Boy, have sold on the collector’s market for as much as $50-$120. They are being re-released for the first time in a decade.

Approximately 25 mm in size.

Each figure is an unpainted, pewter miniature. Some assembly and cleaning may be required.

Sold as a single, individual figure in a plastic bag and comes with a black, 30 mm or 40 mm plastic base.

Prices vary according to size, but range from $6-20 retail.

Sorry, not currently available in stores. Available only from Palladium Books.